University in the North-East

Are Singapore residents sitting on the biggest housing time bomb in the island’s history?

Perhaps the scariest thing in this age of information and knowledge at your fingertips is that nobody knows. You can speak to 5 different people and get 5 different answers. There seems to be a mix between people on the one hand drifting along, certain that everything will all be ok, and that the government won’t turf them out on the street, while on the other hand, we are heading for social disaster.

En bloc seems to be the buzz word regarding the property market in Singapore at the moment. So what exactly is en bloc, what’s the process, and is it something that you should be worried or excited about?

What is En Bloc Sale?

An en bloc sale is simply the sale of an entire private strata development when there is a majority consent among the owners to sell. If there is a unanimous consent among the owners to sell, then en bloc laws do not apply. It was initially brought in as a process to redevelop old property and bring it up to the standards demanded by modern home owners and investors. Read more

Since 1920s..

Public housing in Singapore has been at the front of government policy for a century, and looks set to be for the foreseeable future. It has come a long way from a very low base, and it hasn’t been a smooth ride, but it is hard to knock what has been achieved in a relatively small timescale.

Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT)

The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) Logo

Housing in Singapore was blighted in the early 20th century by overcrowding, poor hygienic and living conditions. People were crowded into shophouses, slums and squatter settlements, forcing the British colonial government to try and put some island wide initiative in place. The result was the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) which was proposed in 1920, with the bill finally being approved seven years later. Read more

The URA Master Plan and Why You Need to Use it

Leasehold or Freehold

Freehold or Leasehold

It isn’t the case that it is all about location location location, when it comes to buying property in Singapore. The question of whether to buy freehold or leasehold is something that comes a very close second in buyers’ minds, and the debate about which is best seems to have been raging for almost as long as the country has been independent.

The 4 Regional Centres in Singapore

Regional centres are a government initiative to relieve the burden and focus of the central districts of Singapore, by setting up self-sufficient centres in other parts of the island. These regional centres would provide residents with everything they need – education, retail, leisure and other essential amenities.